Angola

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

Last updated: 09 July 2018

Summary: Signatory Angola said in September 2017 that it hopes to ratify the convention in 2018 after approval by its executive council. Angola has often expressed its desire to ratify, but the government still has not introduced ratification for parliamentary consideration and approval. Angola has participated in all the convention’s meetings. It voted in favor of a key United Nations (UN) resolution on cluster munitions in December 2017.

Angola disclosed in September 2017 that it does not possess any stocks of cluster munitions and commented on past use. Angola is not known to have produced or exported cluster munitions.  

Policy

The Republic of Angola signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008.

At the convention’s Seventh Meeting of States Parties in September 2017, an Angolan official said that the Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and National Mine Action Authority (“CNIDAH”) are making a strong case for the Council of Ministries to approve ratification of the convention during the next year.[1]

Angolan representatives have promised the country’s ratification to the convention over the past decade, but the government still has not referred the convention to parliament for consideration and approval.[2]

Angola regards existing legislation such as its Penal Code and constitution as sufficient to enforce its implementation of the convention’s provisions. In September 2017, Angola told States Parties that it views existing laws and regulations as “sufficient to charge, prosecute and punish any national or foreign citizen who in the Angolan Territory develop, produce, acquire, stockpile, retain or transfer to anyone directly or indirectly, assist, encourage or induce anyone to engage in any activity prohibited under the Convention of Cluster Munitions.”[3]

Angola said in September 2017 that it plans to submit a voluntary Article 7 transparency report for the convention and, as proof of its “good will and progress,” shared summary findings from the draft pending report, which it said will cover the period from 2009 to 2016.[4]

Angola participated extensively in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It did not attend the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008, but signed the convention in Oslo in December 2008.[5]

Angola has participated in every Meeting of States Parties of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, most recently the Seventh Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in September 2017.[6] It has attended regional workshops on cluster munitions, most recently in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in August 2016, where it endorsed a commitment to ratify the convention.[7]

In December 2017, Angola voted in favor of a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution that urges states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to “join as soon as possible.”[8]

Angola is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Production, transfer, and stockpiling

Angola is not known to have produced or exported cluster munitions.

In September 2017, Angola told States Parties that it does not possess any cluster munitions as the stockpile was destroyed by 2012. It said the Angolan armed forces and HALO Trust weapons and ammunition disposal teams destroyed a total of 7,284 submunitions from stocks in 2005–2012.[9] It said that Angola has no stockpile of cluster munitions according to the highest ranks of its Army and Ministry of Defense.

Following this communication to States Parties, Cluster Munition Monitor has removed Angola from its list of countries that currently stockpile cluster munitions. Angola must still provide a transparency report for the convention to formally confirm that all its cluster munition stocks have been identified and destroyed.

Use

Deminers have cleared unexploded submunitions and other remnants of air-delivered cluster munitions from at least eight of the country’s 18 provinces, most in the south and southeast of the country.[10] However, a lack of firm evidence means it is not possible to conclusively attribute exact responsibility for the past use of cluster munitions in the country during fighting between the government of Angola’s armed forces and rebel UNITA (National Union for the Total Independence of Angola) forces from 1975 until as late as the year 2000.

In September 2017, the government told States Parties of this past history of cluster munition use while cautioning that “the information we have from operators either publics [sic], NGO or commercials [is] very limited.” Angola said the cluster munition use occurred after the country’s November 1975 independence when “the racist regime in South Africa with heavy air force and artillery decided to carried [sic] out a series of attacks to the southern and southeastern provinces of Angola to prevent the independence, with the excuses of following the freedom fighter of SWAPO and ANC [independence movements for Namibia and South Africa respectively] inside Angola and also to stop the government forces attacking the rebels movement UNITA supported by USA.”[11]

Angola observed that it rapidly “became a cold war battlefield, with the Angolan government forces supported also by Soviet Union and Cuba.” It said:

The war planes from South Africa Air Force were used on a daily base [sic] to strike government forces, SWAPO and ANC positions and other areas of the country indiscriminately. In that period, the Angolan Air Force also attacked UNITA positions to retaliate their extemporaneous ground attacks. This was the time when Clusters Munitions were used in Angola.

The types of cluster munitions cleared by deminers in Angola include Soviet-made RBK 250-275 cluster bombs.[12] In August 2016, HALO Trust cleared two Alpha submunitions during survey operations in Cunene province along with the remnants of CB470 cluster bombs. It was reportedly “unclear if the bombs had been fired at a target in the area or if they were jettisoned after an unsuccessful mission and the bomblets scattered on the ground.” According to Angola, the Alpha bomblet was developed in Rhodesia in 1970 and later in South Africa in the 1980s.[13]



[1] Statement of Angola, Convention on Cluster Munitions Seventh Meeting of States Parties, Geneva, 4 September 2017.

[2] In June 2016, representatives from Angola’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Defense said the ratification process was at a “very advanced stage.” See, Michael P. Moore, “It’s time for Angola to ratify the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” Opinion piece, Cluster Munition Coalition website, based on meeting between Michael P. Moore, Researcher for the Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor, and representatives from Angola’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Defense, Angola, June 2016. In August 2016, Angolan officials predicted that the ratification process would be completed within two months. ICBL-CMC meeting with Fernando Pedro Marques, Third Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Angola, in Addis Ababa, 4–5 August 2016.

[3] Statement of Angola, Convention on Cluster Munitions Seventh Meeting of States Parties, Geneva, 4 September 2017.

[4] Ibid.

[5] For details on Angola’s policy and practice regarding cluster munitions through early 2009, see Human Rights Watch and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), p. 29.

[6] Angola also attended the convention’s First Review Conference in 2015 and intersessional meetings in 2011–2015.

[7]The Addis Ababa Commitment on Universalization and Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” Africa Regional Workshop on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, 5 August 2016.

[8]Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 72/54, 4 December 2017. It voted in favor of the previous UNGA resolution promoting the convention in 2016, but absent from the vote on the first one in 2015.

[9] Previously, in 2010, an official said that Angola’s armed forces no longer possess cluster munition stocks following a project by the government and the HALO Trust to destroy the stockpile. CMC meetings with Maria Madalena Neto, Victim Assistance Coordinator, CNIDAH, International Conference on the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Santiago, 7–9 June 2010. Notes by the CMC/Human Rights Watch.

[10] In September 2017, Angola stated that eight provinces are suspected to be contaminated by cluster munition remnants: Bengo, Bié, Cunene, Huambo, Huila, Kuando Kubango, Kuanza Sul, and Moxico. Statement of Angola, Convention on Cluster Munitions Seventh Meeting of States Parties, Geneva, 4 September 2017. According to a demining official, cluster munitions have been cleared from Huambo province near Caala and Bailundo. Interview with Jorge Repouso Leonel Maria, Liaison Officer, CNIDAH, Huambo, 21 April 2010.

[11] Statement of Angola, Convention on Cluster Munitions Seventh Meeting of States Parties, Geneva, 4 September 2017.

[12] Landmine Action, “Note on Cluster Munitions in Angola,” 10 February 2004. In the past, Jane’s Information Group noted that KMGU dispensers that deploy submunitions were in service for Angolan aircraft. Robert Hewson, ed., Jane’s Air-Launched Weapons, Issue 44 (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2004), p. 835.

[13] Statement of Angola, Convention on Cluster Munitions Seventh Meeting of States Parties, Geneva, 4 September 2017.